Celas Grenache Ludovic Engelvin 2020

Celas Grenache Ludovic Engelvin, natural wine from the Languedoc near Nimes.  The 40 year-old vines for this cuvée grow on north facing sandstone slopes opposite the mountain of Pic Saint-Loup between Nimes and Montpellier. The name of the wine is reference to the type of sandstone in the vineyard, called Grès de Célas, the name found in an old geological study of the area.  The vines are are hand harvested and vinification takes place in stainless steel tanks using only indigenous yeasts. The wine is aged in fiberglass and stainless steel tanks for 6 months, then bottled unfined and unfiltered.  This is absolutely stunning Grenache and a pure de terroir with all of the dark, broody fruit character and body coming from the vineyard, not from the wine making which is non invasive and very soft touch.  Grenache like this is an emotional wine, it seems to warm you and speak to the soul.  Ludo has not had an easy time of it in recent years and has lost almost all his production since the 2020 vintage.  We hope for the best for him in the future, he is certainly an exceptional wine maker and magician of the Grenache grape.

Ludovic Engelvin started his wine career as a somellier, running a wine shop.

After studying under Didier Daganeau in the Loire Valley he decided to return to his native Languedoc, and bought a single hectare of Grenache vines, growing on sandstone and clay limestone, which he began to vinify. He quickly established himself as one of the brightest young wine making talents in France and soon sold his shop to make wine full time. He uses no mechanical intervention, just a herd of sheep to maintain the land, and only herbal remedies being used on the vineyard - no chemicals here! Bottling takes place without fining or filtration. Ludovic is a serious and sensitive soul and this is transmitted in his superb expressions of the Grenache grape variety, of which he now produces several.